1. Field of the invention
The invention relates to apparatus for transferring a flowable, in particular a particulate or possibly liquid or pasty material. This may contain, for example, at least one active ingredient and/or excipient for the formation of a drug.
In the preparation and/or further processing and/or transport of a flowable material, for example consisting of more or less solid particles, it is often necessary to connect a material-delivering apparatus containing the material temporarily to a material-accepting apparatus, i.e. to dock the two apparatuses with one another, to transfer the material from the material-delivering apparatus to the material-accepting apparatus and then to separate the two apparatuses again. For example, a material can be transported by means of a transportable container forming part of a material-delivering apparatus to a material-accepting apparatus which is intended, for example, for processing the material and, for example, is stationary, and can be filled into said material-accepting apparatus, and/or a material prepared and/or processed in a material-delivering apparatus can be transferred to a transportable container serving as a material-accepting apparatus, or a material can be transferred by means of a transportable container into another container. One and the same transportable container may serve as part of a material-accepting apparatus in a first material transfer and subsequently as part of a material-delivering apparatus in a second material transfer. Furthermore, the material-delivering and the material-accepting apparatuses may be formed by two essentially stationary apparatuses, one of which is provided with a movable or adjustable material line which is temporarily connected to the other apparatus for material transfer.
2. Description of the prior art
Known means for such material transfer have, for example, a transportable container which serves for delivery of the material and has a material outlet arranged at its lower end and a container which serves for accepting the material and has a material inlet at its upper end. The material outlet and the material inlet each have a housing whose wall has a vertical pipe connection with a cylindrical inner surface and, at the lower and upper end, respectively, an orifice having a horizontal orifice edge. Starting from disconnected positions in which they are separated from one another, the two containers and the housing can be brought into a connected position in which the two housings abut in abutting regions enclosing the orifices. Each of the two housings holds a closure flap which can be swivelled about a horizontal axis of rotation and has circular disc which can be swivelled alternatively into a closed position or open position for, respectively, closing and opening the passage bounded by the relevant housing. When such a means is used, the flaps in housings present in disconnected positions usually remain in the closed position and are temporarily swivelled into the open position only after connection of the two housings, in order to transfer material contained in one container to the other container.
In many known arrangements of this type, the flaps are arranged in the housings in such a way that the axes of rotation are a distance away from the horizontal orifice of the relevant housing. If the flaps of such means are swivelled back into the closed position after transfer of the material and the two housings are separated from one another, material which adheres to those sections of the inner surfaces of the housing which are located between the orifices and the flaps and to those end surfaces of the flaps which face the orifices can enter the environment. Such contamination of the environment of the means may have serious consequences in the case of materials containing pharmaceutically active and/or toxic substances. Conversely, when the housings are separated from one another, humid air, dust and other contaminating materials from the environment may enter the housing through the orifices in the housing as far as the flaps and may enter the transferred material during a subsequent transfer process and contaminate this material or otherwise damage it.
A coupling and closure means disclosed in German Patent 43 42 962 and intended for transferring a material has two housings with pipe connections and two flaps which have a disc and pivots, projecting away from this and semicircular in cross-section, and which can be swivelled about axes of rotation which lie in the horizontal planes which are defined by the end surfaces of the pipe connections and are at right angles to the axes of the pipe connections. If the two housings with their end surfaces abut one another, the discs of the two flaps are adjacent to one another, the axes of rotation of the two flaps coinciding. The flat end surfaces of the pipe connections are provided with recesses in which are arranged bearing shells which have a semicircular cross-section and into which the pivots of the flaps fit in the closed position.
If the flaps were mounted exclusively in the semicircular bearing shells, the flaps could fall out of the bearing shells when the housings were separated from one another. Additional bearing means not disclosed in German Patent 43 42 962 must therefore be present.
The means disclosed in said German patent also has various disadvantages. One of these disadvantages is that the semicircular recesses and grooves of the two pipe connections, the bearing shells and the flaps must be produced very exactly and in particular must be very exactly aligned during connection of the two pipe connections, to enable the flaps to be swivelled when the housings are connected to one another. This increases the costs for the production of the means and the time required for connecting or coupling the housings. A further disadvantage is that it is difficult and expensive to seal the cavities of the two pipe connections tightly from the environment because of the semicircular recesses and pivots. The seals which are fastened to the pipe connections, seal the flaps in the closed position and prevent swivelling at least when the pipe connections are separated from one another are subjected to severe wear during swivelling of the flaps. In addition, in the case of a means which can be used in practice and possibly sealed at the recesses and pivots by sealing means present in addition to the stated seals, it is probably difficult and time-consuming to separate the flaps from the pipe connections for thorough cleaning of the flaps, of the pipe connections and of the containers connected to these, and thereafter to connect them to said pipe connections again. According to said patent, two pneumatic apparatuses are also present, by means of which the upper pipe connection and parts connected thereto can be lowered and raised during coupling and separation of the two pipe connections. These pneumatic apparatuses increase the production costs and the space required by the means and in addition consume compressed air and hence energy.